Yahoo! Redesigned Front Page gets hip to Ajax
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Yahoo! has launched their new homepage version that includes Ajax-enbled content all over the place. It's a great improvement over their homepage from the past, but it does shift more away from the "we're mainly a search engine" idea they had before. The new site is a portal to the core, providing everything from entertainment and sports information to links to just about every service they offer (off on the left).
The search box for the site is still prominent, though, taking up residence at the very top of the page. The blocks below it, however, aren't nearly as static. Mouseover one of the blocks in the top right box (Mail, Messenger, Local, etc) and you'll be greated with a slide-down effect and dynamic content - most of them refreshing their content right there (like when you enter a zip code for the Weather option).
The actual results from the search (and really, pretty much everything outside this new front page) is still the same, but there's enough content here to keep you informed and up-to-date for most general purposes. One thing that's thankfully missing (well, almost) from this new front page - ads. I only see the one in the right-hand column (for an outside company). Nice and unobtrustive.
Personally, I'd say the redesign is very much a success and the addition of Ajax-enabled content blocks make it even sweeter.
